Final jabs to be given at Queensgate COVID hub as centre to close

The final jabs will be given at Peterborough’s Queensgate vaccine hub on Thursday, as the centre is set to close down.

The hub opened in Queensgate in October 2021, and thousands of residents have since been given their vaccinations in the city centre.

But the hub is now set to close for the final time.

Today (December 14) and tomorrow the hubs will be open from 8.30am-4pm.

After Thursday, residents who want to get a COVID vaccination will need to go to pharmacies and outreach services.

The large hubs elsewhere in Cambridgeshire – in Wisbech, Cambridge and Eaton Socon – will also close for the final time on Thursday.

“We would like to thank the amazing staff and volunteers for their dedication, compassion, and hard work”

The centre has seen 44 employees on fixed term contracts over the past 15 months, and 70 volunteers during each month.

Mike Passfield, Clinical Operations Director for the large scale vaccination centres run by Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust across Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and Norfolk said: “Following a successful campaign to protect local people from Covid-19 over the last two years, our temporary large-scale vaccination centres will close between 15 - 31 December 2022 after completion of the autumn booster programme. This is in line with the timing of the national autumn booster programme.

“We would like to thank the amazing staff and volunteers for their dedication, compassion, and hard work that has helped to protect thousands of local people from Covid-19. The staff working in our large-scale vaccination centres have unique skills and a commitment to supporting the health and wellbeing of our local people which we are keen to retain in the local health and care system. We are working with staff on fixed term contracts to identify future employment

opportunities across our health and care partners and support the many bank staff and volunteers at the centres by sharing information and advice on alternative opportunities.”

The trust has no plans to re-use the Queensgate location, with the lease ending at the end of December.

Hundreds of thousands of doses given out in city

Dr Fiona Head, Chief Medical Officer, NHS Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, said: “I would also like to personally thank all our COVID-19 vaccination staff and volunteers at Cambridgeshire & Peterborough’s large vaccination centres. Thanks to their incredible efforts over the last two years, they have delivered over 1,050,000 vaccinations.”

The first COVID vaccines in Peterborough were given at Peterborough City Hospital in December 2020.

Nearly 70 per cent of the city’s population have had at least one dose of vaccine – lower than the total for England of 78.8 per cent.

However, as the number of people testing positive for COVID has reduced this year, the number of people getting vaccinated has slowed, with just 76 doses given out in Peterborough in the first week of December. During the height of the pandemic, thousands of doses were given every day.

The Queensgate centre was visited by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson in January this year.

Anyone eligible for a vaccine is encouraged to walk-in or book an appointment for their autumn booster via www.nhs.uk/covidvaccine or by calling 119. Primary 1st and 2nd vaccines also remain available.